Tips on Creating an Ebook

You’ve probably heard it a zillion times… creating an ebook, your very own ebook, and selling it is a one way to make money.  This is the digital information marketing business model and it has been successful for many people.  If you’ve never written an ebook before, it may seem a daunting task.

While there is more to it than this, I’ve got some tips her on how to create an ebook to get you started.  Mind you, it’s one way to put together an ebook, not the only way.

Pick your niche first.
Some people pick a niche according to their passions or knowledge and others pick a huge competitive market because they know money is being made there.  Come up with a few ideas, making sure they’re not too broad or too narrow.  Too broad means too much competition from the big boys and too narrow means there might not be enough to the topic to continuously create content around.  Too narrow also means there won’t be a huge pool of people interested in the topic.  Even though you might be super passionate about art created from seagull feathers, for example, that doesn’t mean many other people are and it’s probably not the best subject for creating an ebook around.

Find your keywords.
Ideally, you want keyword phrases that are highly sought after and yet have little competition.  That’s in a perfect world, but get as close as you can.  Do take some time here.

Make sure the keywords are money-makers.
This means there should be some AdSense ads on the right side of the page when you put your keywords in Google search.  If there are ads, it’s a good sign.  That means there is money to be made, or the people footing the bill for the ads would take their little ads elsewhere.

Find the questions people in your niche are asking.
You can go to Yahoo Answers and see what people are asking easy enough.  You can also go to a few forums in your niche and see what problems people are having.  Find 5-7 questions or problems to work with.

Research the answers to these questions. 
Each question and answer will be a chapter in your ebook.  You can do an online search for answers and also look through the top article directories.  Write the ebook, one chapter at a time, in your own words.  If you feel the writing is beyond your abilities, you can outsource it.  But instead of paying out the nose for a ghostwritten ebook, you can outsource each chapter as if it were an article.  You will pay less for 10-20 articles and you may even get a discount for a bulk order and for handing them your research links too. 

Put the book together.
Make sure it flows from chapter to chapter.  Add disclaimer and privacy blurbs as well as a table of contents.  Also include any affiliate links in the body of the ebook and/or a resources page at the end.  Include perceived value by adding stock photos, screen shots, borders, and tips or quotes in boxes.

Turn the ebook into a PDF.
You can use Open Office or maybe your computer already comes with a PDF converter.  Once you have it as a PDF you upload it to your site, create a sales page, and get to work driving traffic to your new masterpiece.  Remember to use your keywords in everything you do!

So those are some of my tips on creating an ebook.  You’ve probably noticed there is a lot of research involved when getting started.  I have a handy dandy tool I use that helps me do all the necessary research faster.  I’ve blogged about it before, and I’m excited to tell you that the product creators have come out with a new version with even more features.  I got to test the new version to see if I could break it. ;)  They were relieved to know I could not.

As you can see from the picture, IM Research Power Tool is like a one-stop shopping center for research.  I can look at articles in article directories, Squidoo lenses, and through Twitter links.  It’s even got Yahoo Answers right there.  Of course, I also use it to check what’s on Amazon and Clickbank… and Google of course.  If I want to only look at pdfs on a particular topic, there’s a button for that too. 

Enough gushing, if you like what you see, go for it.  IM Research Power Tool    

Disclaimer - Yes, that’s my affiliate link and I’m darn proud of it.  I do stand to profit if you order from that link.  I really like and use this tool myself, and although it saves me time in my online business, I haven’t really put a dollar figure on my saved time.  Oh, and I did purchase the tool myself back in January 2009 and have been using it ever since.